AM Buffalo is an American television talk show based in Buffalo, New York. The program has aired on WKBW-TV since its founding in 1978 and is hosted by Linda Pellegrino. Jon Summers serves as a reporter and announcer for the program; on days that Pellegrino or Summers is not available, WKBW program director John DiScuillo fills in.
Previous hosts include Brian Kahle, Nancy Foreman, Cindy Abbott, Drew Kahn, and Helen Tederous; the hourlong program has aired weekdays on WKBW at 10:00 AM since its inception, with a few temporary time changes. The show was part of ABC's "AM (city)" franchise, the same franchise that spawned The Oprah Winfrey Show (which was originally AM Chicago) and Live with Regis and Kelly (which traces its history to AM Los Angeles).
The show dates back to 1978 after the discontinuation of the national Dialing for Dollars franchise, and has historically followed a similar format. Hosts during this era include Nolan Johannes, Liz Dribben (1964 to 1968), and Dave Thomas.
The show is mostly paid segments, with sponsors as "guests." During major news events, the show turns into a general interest call-in talk show. Cooking segments and local musicians are also occasionally featured, and there are some celebrity interviews (via satellite) conducted in coordination with advertising promotions, often involving call-in contests where listeners can win prizes. In 2008, the show relaunched the "Jackpot Call" from Dialing for Dollars. The show often ends with a music video.
One of AM Buffalo's most novel contests was a contest known as Who Wants to be a Trivianaire, a local version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? complete with Millionaire music and graphics. Usually played during the summer, contestants called in and answered one multiple-choice question for a prize package. When Millionaire left ABC, Trivianaire was cancelled.
The show's theme music, after several years of generic jazz- and light-themed music, switched to the vocal version of Move Closer to Your World in December 2008, as recognition of the show celebrating its 30th anniversary (and the station as a whole celebrating its 50th as well as changing back to its Eyewitness News format, which uses the theme). For summer 2010, the program changed themes again to a summer-based theme.
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A weekend version of the program, Buffalo Weekend, was created in February 2008, as a mixture of replays of the previous week's AM Buffalo segments and a few new features (including a community calendar). It initially aired at 9:00 AM before moving to 7:30 AM in January 2009; the half-hour program airs alongside the syndicated House Smarts with Lou Manfredini. It is, as of May 2009, off the air and infomercials are airing in its place.
An afternoon version of the show, called PM Buffalo, aired from 2004 until August 29, 2008 at 4:00 p.m. PM Buffalo was preceded in its time slot by a program called WNY Live!. Hosted by Linda White and later by Grace Polanski, WNY Live! had news updates at the top and bottom of each hour and several long form news features. WKBW's budget was cut in 2004 and WNY Live! was replaced by a PM version of the AM Buffalo program. In its last years, further budget cuts and a loss of advertisers reduced PM Buffalo largely to repeats of AM Buffalo's paid segments, and the program was no longer aired live. The program, by this point, was described as "deadly" to the station's ratings[1] and because of this, WKBW ended PM Buffalo on August 29, 2008 and replaced it with the syndicated medical talk show The Doctors, which the station has promoted aggressively.
Most guest segments are sponsored. The most frequent guests include:
| Preceded by The Rosie O'Donnell Show |
WKBW-TV, 4:00 P.M. 2002-2008 (as WNY Live! 2002-2004) |
Succeeded by The Doctors |
| Preceded by Dialing for Dollars |
WKBW-TV, 10:00 A.M. 1978–present |
Incumbent |